Pairing help
The two-device link is a little dance: code, reply, connected — works between two phones, or a phone and a laptop. Here's the dance, drawn — and every reason it stumbles, with the fix.
Open babycamly on both devices — two phones, or a phone and a laptop. They only need to share the same wifi.
By the crib, tap Cam device. On the one you hold, tap View device. Each now knows its part.
The Cam device shows a code. On the View device, use its scan step to read it, or copy code text and paste it across. Don't use your phone's normal camera app.
The picture appears on your View device. Leave the Cam device propped and plugged in for the night.
Careful with the codes: don't point your phone's ordinary camera at the on-screen QR. A normal camera app doesn't understand it — it just fires off a web search of the gibberish. Read codes only with the scan step inside babycamly, or skip cameras entirely: tap copy code text, then message it to yourself or type it into the box on the other device. That copy-paste route is the reliable, no-aiming one — the easy choice whenever a laptop is involved. Keep the QR for two phones you can hold together.
The handshake, unhurried
- Cam device → open the monitor, tap Cam device, allow camera and mic. A phone, tablet, or a laptop with a webcam all qualify. In a second or two it draws code A. That code contains its connection details — a network name badge, a one-night password, a certificate fingerprint, and where on your wifi it can be knocked on. No video is in the code.
- View device → tap View device. Its in-app scanner opens; aim it at code A (or paste the copied text). The moment it reads it, it prepares its own details and draws code B, the reply.
- Back to the Cam device → tap they scanned it → read their reply, then let it read code B — hold the View device's screen up to its camera, or paste the text. As soon as code B lands, the two connect by themselves — usually inside two seconds on the same wifi.
If a camera is being stubborn, every code also exists as a text block: copy it on one device and paste it into the box on the other. Same handshake, different courier — and the friendlier one when a laptop is in the mix.
When the devices can't find each other
Guest wifi & client isolation — the #1 cause
Many routers run the guest network with client isolation (sometimes "AP isolation"): every device gets internet but is walled off from every other device. Hotels and cafés almost always do this; plenty of home routers ship a guest SSID that does it too. The handshake will finish (the codes are just pictures) but the connection then never comes up, because the devices literally cannot reach each other. Fix: put both on the main home wifi, or turn isolation off for the guest network in the router settings.
Screen brightness while scanning
A dim screen in a dark nursery is a hard read for the decoder. Push brightness up while showing a code, hold the two 15–25 cm apart, and keep the code flat to the camera. Glare from an overhead light can wash the code out — tilt slightly. (No aiming at all if you copy-paste the text instead.)
Two different wifi names
2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands of the same router are usually fine. Two different networks (main + extender with its own subnet, or phone hotspot + house wifi) often aren't. Put both devices on the identical network name if the link won't come up.
Different networks on purpose (office → home)
Tick different networks on both devices before starting. It asks a public STUN server for each one's outside address (that lookup reveals your IP to the STUN server — the video still flows directly). This works for many pairs of networks, but some carriers and offices use NATs that block direct links entirely; without a relay server there is no way through, and this tool doesn't run one. That's the honest boundary.
The code is "too dense to scan"
Rare — it happens when a device has many network interfaces and the code outgrows what a phone camera reads reliably. The page says so and offers the text block; copy-paste it across and carry on.
A device fell asleep
Both ends hold a screen wake-lock, but a very old browser may ignore it. Check the screen-timeout setting on the Cam device, and keep both plugged in — streaming is thirsty.
No sound on the View device
Browsers refuse to auto-play audio, so the stream arrives muted until you tap the video once — the tap to hear the room button is exactly that tap. iPhones are strict about this; it's them, not you.
It dropped mid-night
A brief wifi hiccup usually heals itself — the banner says so and waits. If it goes to "link lost", the one-night passwords have expired with the connection: tap start over on both devices and redo the two codes. Thirty seconds, fresh keys.